The Wall
By Robtel Neajai Pailey
Hometown: Monrovia, Liberia
Major(s): African Studies & English
E-Mail: rpailey@howard.edu
  

she’s built this wall day by day it’s constructed year by year it’s destructive to her inner sense of humanity, stability, sanity the edifice is durable strongly reserved to fortify her complexity, fear, insecurity only she can glimpse the hidden crevices only she can bridge the gap between reality and illusion only she can alter its state Eyes bore Voices demand Arms reach out Laughter ensues she wants to respond but she remains forever trapped  in an infinite moment of time paralyzed by life’s vicissitudes she’s enraptured by the lateral pull of the wall as it encloses  leaving her desperately clinging to something… Amorphous she can’t retreat or can she? © 2001 Robtel Neajai Pailey